Ten Reasons Why John Shay Should be Fired

[XLFD]

I must admit to believing in my heart and brain that everyday and any day is a 

But rarely do I emphasize such things at city council meetings.  Last night, I was emboldened somewhat by the actions taken by city councilors in Manistee the previous week where they severed relations with their city manager, Mitch Deisch. 

I have tried to figure out what made the public and then the council turn against Deisch, and came to the conclusion that it was mostly perception; Mitch seemed to be throwing money at chimeras while the streets and sewers of Manistee suffered.  He seemed to have few claims against him of impropriety, other than perhaps a raise he was given many months before it was voted on.

John Shay is a different case.  He has managed to remain in the good graces of those with whom he needs to retain his position, but his policies, his practices, and his focus have left many others dismayed.  He can appear capable, effective, creative, and efficient to his adherents, but his actual record more reflects incapability, ineffectiveness, derivativeness, and inefficiency.  Like a skilled illusionist he can trick the unwary whom are only paying attention to what he wants them to. 

But, as stated, I was heartened and fortified by the actions in Manistee to topple a long-term city manager without any criminal or severe civil charges as a basis, and started my public comment regarding why John Shay needs to go, and limited myself to ten reasons.  I was further bolstered by another citizen public commenter who indicated that her contact with the city manager over issues of the skate park was less than a pleasant experience.

I include the first part of my speech here listing ten bad aspects of our city manager complete with links and files corroborating the allegations.  You will note there is only criticisms of his public acts and policies, not anything other than what is a matter of public record, not any personal issues.

You may wonder whether they were commented on at the end of the meeting by the council.  Indirectly, they did; commenting about what a great manager they have in John Shay.  None of the actual points I brought up were touched on, however, so these glowing testimonials from councilors seem to indicate that everything he does is like warm butter to them.  We definitely need some new city councilors in 2016 if not before.

"Congratulations to the citizens of Manistee, whose council did the right thing in firing an ineffective city manager. In Ludington, we not only have an ineffective city manager, but a proven corrupt city manager who:

1) willfully sworn falsely on a court affidavit,

2) flagrantly libeled a citizen after the city settled a federal lawsuit against the manager for $15,000,

3) failed as a FOIA Coordinator while decimating the city's reputation for transparency in the process,

4) oversaw and allowed the overbilling by our city attorneys for three years,

5) repeatedly and willingly threw away money by not observing the city charter's mandates on competitive bidding processes,

6) squandered money by investing $1.5 million from the water fund in unneeded, unbidded water tower painting,

7) led this council to violate the Open Meetings Act law regarding the firing of Jack Byers and later through an unlawful E-mail voting scheme,

8) violates the state constitution by shamefully refusing to take an oath of office when required to,

9) has allowed the city's wastewater treatment plant to go four years without a discharge permit, threatening the public health with excessive levels of ammonia and mercury deposited in their water supply,

10) has permitted the city attorney to siphon funds from the city as attorney fees to help pay a water rate consulting firm without any approval from this council (as seen here in one of several such billings)..."

Here's some of the comments our public officials stated at the end of the meeting, as gleaned from the video of the meeting in defense of their man.  It is obvious, that they think highly of John Shay, and believe that any concern raised, which they dodged any review of in their entirety, was insignificant when they could tell us what a fine man John Shay is and how competent he is.  Don't believe it.  I include some commentary in [red and bracketed]

Councilor Castonia:  "First off. I'd like to say how proud I am of the city manager.  To sit here, every meeting, with these malicious innuendos and fabrications [Gary doesn't even try to dispute any one of the ten 'fabricated innuendos], and he's so professional.  I don't know how many of you other people can take what he takes, and still be professional about it [Thanks, I try my best].  I'm just behind him, 100%.  (smattering of applause)"

Councilor Winczewski then admitted it's difficult to be in public positions, praising first the DPW, then the fire department, then the police department, Cartier Park workers, Cathy Van Sickle of the Recreation Department, the city clerk, city treasurer, senior citizen director, the building administrator (whatever that is), then finished with management.

 

"John Shay and Jackie Steckel, I don't think you can say enough about them [Agreed].  Every time I have a question, they get me the information I need.  I'm going to need time for a new grandbaby soon and Jackie's working around my schedule so I can help be with them, when I bring that little baby home.  And John Shay, pinches a penny tighter than I do [laughter by Attorney Wilson, who submitted overbilled invoices to Shay for three years]. 

And John and I don't agree on many issues, but I think there's a deep respect there for each other, and for the city council I work with.  I really want to tell you that, our job is not easy, we don't agree on everything either [Is that why almost all votes are unanimous?], but I think there's a mutual respect there.  And we all, everybody, EVERYBODY, tries to do what's best for the city [that's why we keep raising your taxes, fees, utility rates, while taking your rights away]. And I hope you realize that.  Thanks to all of you."

Mayor Cox:  Ms Strahan addressed some concerns with the skate park, and one of those concerns with maintenance not being consistent down there, I would like to take look at in the cemetery and parks committee, ... Ms. Strahan, the trash can will be down there shortly, we'll get those down there as quickly as possible because it's hard to not give the kids a place  throw their trash, cause they'll throw it somewhere else... looking at my classroom floor everyday [this is positive and community oriented, a good action, but then the mayor starts reading from a prepared statement about John Shay].

And one other thing I did want to say is, I do want to address concerning our city manager's question of morals and ethics [though morals and ethics were involved in my list of ten, the action and deeds were what should be addressed].  I just want to say from a personal standpoint tht should there be a question of his morals and ethics... I can personally guarantee with the utmost certainty that I have not known another individual that acts more unselfishly or for the betterment of their place of employment, in this case it's the City of Ludington, than the man sitting to my right [Mr. Cox works in our schools; I would be amazed to believe that any of his fellow teachers are more selfish and not working for the betterment of the school than the man to his right]. 

Every decision and action that John takes is carefully thought out [calculated], is scrutinized by himself [for maximal self-interest], and then it goes to critique by city council [as if], and the citizens of this, Ludington.  His job does not allow for unjust, immoral and unethical behavior as claimed by some people without horrible consequences and that can be viewed in the media lately [Mayor, Google "city manager" and either of those adjectives you just used and find a host of city managers running afoul of proper conduct]. 

It's my strong opinion that this person, this individual that we currently have in this position is a blessing for the City of Ludington [a curse for the citizens of Ludington], and I'm honored to be able to work with this individual and his staff [I didn't need to know that you work with John Shay's staff-- I've heard rumors I guess].  And I don't know of any more outstanding individual we could have in this position, so I'm very thankful for that.  (bobbleheaded nods of assent from the rest of the panel with various versions of 'Amen to that')." 

[Willy]

X, you've got the gonads by aunt wish she had and the ones Melinda craves. I've got to hand it to you. That was a brave thing to do and I hope it sprouts wings and wakes up some people who have continued to ignore what is going on. Very convincing arguments against  retaining the services of the current City Manager. Let's assume that Mr. Shay will no longer work for use in the near future, that still leaves Ludington with a group of Councilors that adore someone who does their work for them and who has operated in a questionable manner. They would probably hire another Shay clone or perhaps even the x-manager of Manistee. The current Council cannot be trusted with a garden hose let alone choosing a new City Manager. That's why it should be an elected postition so this type of behavior will not be tolerated and can be undone at the ballot box.

[XLFD]

The best opportunity to change things around will be in 2016 when five council seats will be up for grabs, namely the ones held by Holman (termed out), Rathsack, Johnson, Krauch, and Tykoski.  Those idiots who decided to not run an election for Fourth ward councilor in 2014, have made it so that only two will come up for election in 2018. 

Unless certain conditions prohibit it, I hope to run for Third Ward councilor, but I would really like to have a couple of other new movers and shakers get in with me to run and reverse the crazy direction our city is going, and of course, get rid of John Shay and the shaky and shady attorneys we currently employ, who resemble twelve inch high grasses that need to be mowed down for the city to look nice.

Manistee is doing a lot of housecleaning with two new councilors seated.

[AQUAMAN]

Well said again Willy, Shyster Shay needs to be put out, permanently. Some new blood, hopefully, some true locals, will come forward to take the reigns of justice back for Ludington. Most don't want to get into politics, can't blame them, cause we got real bad ones now. Ludington boasts some very fine citizens that could easily fix things and make things right, if only they would participate. The table of obvious fiasco's is currently set by those holding seats now: infrastructure in ruins, unfair bidding of city contracts over and over again, over-billing by city attorneys, repeated denials of legal FOIA requests, frivolous tourist oriented projects already in place with more planned, nuisance ordinances poorly thought out and worded, blocking views of Lk. Mich. at Ludington Ave's. west end to locals, unneeded higher fees and taxes to cover for poor expenditures of tax monies, repeated lies to the State of Mich. to secure unneeded grants for unwanted projects, paying lost legal suits due to overzealous brutality and illegal affairs of city employees, and the list is endless in negatives.

[XLFD]

It's an incredibly long list of problems in policy, actions, and legalities, and nobody in that hall of city governance and their patsies at the COLDNews even bats an eye at it.  Both the COLDNews and MCP have done their recaps of the meeting written by Brasiczewski and Alway, but none mentioned anything about my assertions, which are all provably true by the public record.

With their past coverage of my concerns, that's probably a good thing since they like mangling the message and the messenger, but it's not how news agencies are supposed to work.  If this meeting proved anything, however, it clearly showed that Shay's behavior is backed by this corruption-adoring council and even the mayor 100%. 

How can a person serve on such a body and permit even half of the ten things I proffered, or the supplementary list that Aquaman provided.  But the bad behavior goes even deeper, and that should be scary for those who care about Ludington's people and their over-regulated and over-taxed situations that keeps getting worse. 

[XLFD]

I appended the article up top by adding the comments of the councilors at the end of the meeting in defense of their man, including an admission by the mayor at the very end which could be taken the wrong way by the sixth graders in his room.

[Willy]

Thanks for the addition of the comments to this topic. One thing that stands out is the fact that this Council and Mayor rely way to much on Shay which shows they are not doing their own work but allowing Shay to act as the Council and Mayor behind the scenes. The Mayors statement  ""Every decision and action that John takes is carefully thought out is scrutinized by himself  and then it goes to critique by city council  and the citizens of this, Ludington"  
Shay's decisions and actions should be scrutinized by the Council and Mayor and that, obviously, is not being done. His comment about "it" [Shay's decisions] going to the the citizens for critique is absolute fantasy. Rarely does the citizens hear about what the Council is doing. The citizens see a vote on what has been presented with, but rarely see or hear any discussions or reasoning as to why certain actions are taken. Shay's decisions should be under the scrutiny and guidance of the Council and it's obvious that is not happening. It's also very obvious why there is little dissent from the public. When the Council and Mayor prop up and approve of Shay's work with no criticism, why would any rational person [sorry X] stand up and appose the entire City Government when they know they would be ridiculed and demonized. Any critique could have their entire life turned upside down by the political machine which includes that non media entity the Ludington Daily News.

If it wasn't for X and this forum the citizens of Ludington would still be in the dark as to what is going at at City Hall and look how he has been treated.

[XLFD]

I gave up being a rational person when I decided to take on city hall, although I can still sometimes succeed in making rational arguments.  But seriously, you would have to be a little irrational to understand the thought processes of the council and mayor after you hear them speak such things as you have said, where they effectively admit that John is running all those things that the citizens are being tapped to pay for.  Our elected representatives aren't calling the shots, an unelected bumpkin who refuses to take an Oath of Office from SE Michigan is calling the shots, and is getting his marching  orders from outside the public and their representatives.

You also gotta love the reference to Shay pinching a penny tighter than Councilor Winczewski, when Shay doesn't use competitive bids very often, and when he does, he doesn't do it right.  He loves money, that's right, but he also loves controlling where that money goes, which is scary, given the lack of safeguards that are becoming readily apparent. 

[AQUAMAN]

It's a shame that Kathy W., in all her supposed wisdom and lack of seniority, doesn't see thru this clown and trick artist Shay. She fits in quite well so far, not rocking any boats, and seeing to it that the propaganda continues with miles and piles of more lies to support the biggest Shyster in Ludington's formerly long and mostly honest political history. Big on words, and lazy to the core, just as her fellow council members.